| System: PS4 |  |
| Dev: Sucker Punch | |
| Pub: Sony | |
| Release: March 21, 2014 | |
| Players: 1 | |
| Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p | Blood, Drug Reference, Language, Sexual Themes, Violence |
For example, there’s a fight at one point in the game where you have a choice of using solely neon or solely smoke. Changing this up and alternating in the powers will not only save your ass it also makes the battle more enjoyable. This is a testament to how the battles are structured in Second Son. Most of your encounters are with lowly soldiers and the like, so changing things up on them will sometimes allow you to survive unscathed. These lower enemies are smart too. While previous entries where the A.I. is sometimes questionable in the intelligence department, here you can feel that a little more attention was paid to the enemies. They will dodge attacks, hide behind various rubble and protective environments to avoid you, and will even stop in mid fight to surrender because they know they can’t win. It truly makes the normal grinding periods of leveling more enjoyable.
The side missions are also more enjoyable. Albeit somewhat limited to just a few different types – finding the secret agent, having a showdown with the enemy to claim the district, finding hidden cameras, and locating audio logs to name a few. They still are all pleasant to do. However, there is one of them I was happy to do until I had done them all. There are stencil art locations throughout the game in which you have to rotate the controller sideways, shake it like a paint can, and then hold down the trigger to make your creation come to life. Simple and trivial sure, but there’s loads of satisfaction when you complete your first one and it carries over until you complete you last one. Of course, adding the option of doing a good or evil image adds a little something extra to the feature.
This is probably one of the most important questions – does the difference between good and evil really impact the story or is it just sort of there? This is something that plagues all games with a choice. Nothing feels as evil as we’d want it to be, yet everything seems as heroic as we make it. I understand the frustration with this, but in a story about powers molded in the vein of a comic book story it fits with the ambiguous path. Second Son does this level of choice perfectly. It screams to you when making Delsin’s choices. Will you save the people who love you or will you save yourself? Or will you help someone you just met or your brother? These are some of the main choices you make, and Sucker Punch does an excellent job blurring the line between pure hero and anti-hero.
inFAMOUS: Second Son is a title you need to own. It exemplifies what is to come from next-gen while keeping the game rooted in pure simple fun. I have played several games throughout my career, some have been glorious train wrecks, and then there are a few which scratch the surface of extraordinary. Second Son doesn’t scratch the surface, it blows a damn hole through it, and you will enjoy every time a new hole is made. If you have a PS4 you have no reason to not get this game, if you don’t have a PS4 what the hell are you waiting for? Second Son paves the path for next-gen capabilities by being the best there is at what it does.
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By Matt Walker Editor-in-Chief Date: March 20, 2014 |
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